E-commerce in the Republic of Serbia doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, and users mostly bought groceries, small household appliances, computers, equipment for them, clothes and shoes, the analysis of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC) showed.
Experts from the digital agency Namics for e-commerce explain that this situation follows the developments at the global level, and add that, according to the statistics of the site Ecommerce News Europe, online shopping in Europe increased by 57 percent, it is stated in the announcement.
Consumers’ decision to choose e-commerce instead of regular shopping was influenced by the fact that people spent more time at home, and thus used the Internet more. Customers took into account the changed opening hours of the stores, and they also wanted to avoid crowds.
“Corona has undoubtedly changed the habits of consumers, so many customers have used e-commerce services for the first time, and others have only strengthened this pattern of behavior. Therefore, the assumption is that e-commerce will still prosper. For example, a survey by our partner, the Salesforce platform, shows that 36 percent of consumers do not plan to return to traditional stores until a corona vaccine is available,” explains Philip Gort of Namics.
Gort reminds that a similar situation happened in 2003 during the SARS epidemic, but he points out that the greater availability of the Internet and the extent of the spread of the coronavirus have influenced the transition to e-commerce to be even greater.
“The pandemic has mostly affected the sale of disinfectants and virus protection products. This segment increased as much as eight times, while the purchase of toilet paper via the Internet jumped by two times. Canned food was also traded a lot online. On the other hand, there was no purchase of suitcases, so this segment decreased by 77 percent. In March and April, consumers did not buy equipment for organizing weddings, bachelorette parties, Gort analyzes the data of the Digital Economic Index.
Gort notes that e-commerce has been shaping the market for many years, and that COVID-19 will only determine its reach: e-commerce has become a part of our everyday life. However, we will know for sure what the scope of e-commerce is only when the needs and habits of users return to regular flows,” concludes Gort.
Namics software experts have developed e-commerce projects for well-known German-speaking companies such as Victorinox, Migros, Bucherer and Kaufland.
The digital agency Namics has been dealing with the digital transformation of business for more than 20 years, and since 2014 it has been present on the market of the Republic of Serbia. Namics employs about 500 professionals in St. Gallen, Zurich, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Belgrade, and has teams for Java, .NET, PHP and Frontend programming languages, Salesforce teams, as well as design and QA teams.
In November 2018, Namics merged with Merkle, the world leader in data-based digital solutions, becoming part of the Dentsu Aegis Network and enabling software engineers and designers to master new narrowly specific areas, Danas reports.
